Motorola Moto G (2013) Review

Before the Moto G, a cheap Android phone meant a washed-out 480p screen, a single slow core, an old version of Android and no hope of a newer one. Motorola launched this in Sao Paulo in November 2013 at 179 dollars unlocked for 8 GB, 199 for 16 GB, and it made that whole category obsolete. The 4.5-inch 720p IPS panel at 329 ppi was better than screens on phones costing three times as much.

The quad-core Snapdragon 400 at 1.2 GHz with 1 GB of RAM ran near-stock Android 4.3 without stutter, and Motorola promised KitKat by January and delivered it in December. Lollipop 5.0 and 5.1 followed in 2015. The 2070 mAh battery lasted a full day with room to spare. The compromises were exactly where a budget phone should make them: the 5 MP camera was soft and slow, there was no LTE until a revised model in mid-2014, and there was no microSD slot, which stung on the 8 GB version.

The rubbery back came off to swap coloured shells but not to swap the battery. Gorilla Glass 3 and a water-repellent coating covered the basics. It became Motorola's best-selling phone ever within a year and the phone that Brazil and India bought in enormous numbers. Every good cheap Android since, from later Moto Gs to Xiaomi and OnePlus, has been measured against it.